We completed a set of books, titled Patchen Paintings. The books convey Edwin Blair’s experience setting up a show of paintings by proto-Beat poet Kenneth Patchen. The show recounted in the book resulted from lots of back and forth written communication between Edwin Blair and Kenneth Patchen.
We designed the book around a short narrative and 50-year-old photos. We researched Patchen and Blair’s correspondence to one another. And we designed the book to visually reference that correspondence. Text from their letters appears on the book’s endpapers. The cover features reproductions of parts of the illustrated envelopes in which Patchen mailed his letters. Inside the book, we feature Edwin Blair’s text, a reproduction of the show’s poster, and a fold-out photo section with photos from show’s opening. The book is risograph- and screen-printed and hand-bound.
The book cover features pasted on arrows and other embellishments emulating the painted, pasted, and adorned envelopes Kenneth Patchen sent to Ed Blair.
Book Interiors
The book features a foldout section of photos from the opening. The photos are reproduced in risograph and digital printing.
The book's endpapers and inside covers feature risograph and screen printed reproductions of Kenneth Patchen's and Edwin Blair's correspondence.
